The best kind of customer is the kind that keeps on coming back for more so learning how to re-engage old customers is vitally important for your business. Any sales team worth its salt knows how to get its patrons pining for more products. If you’re not already doing this then you need to reexamine your priorities.
There is considerable variety in the methods you can utilise to keep your customers craving more and coming back to your company. Social media feedback is important, as are industry events and loyalty programs, and a variety of other methods. So what’s the best way to keep your customers hooked?
Eight ways to engage & re-engage your customers
We crunched the numbers and discovered that these eight ways to keep your customers engaged are the most reliable in any scenario. The ultimate key is to ask questions, to yourself, your company and your customers too. Let’s dive in and take a look.
Keep track of social media feedback
You’re never going to be able to re-engage with old customers if you don’t have a decent social media strategy. Your customers expect to be able to interact with your brand whenever they choose. They also expat instant gratification and if you don’t provide it, your competitors will.
Make sure you respond to as many legitimate texts, tweets, comments etc as possible on your social media pages. Log which work, follow up, ask questions and interact with your customers as much as possible. An engaged following will boost your brand profile and make repeated custom more likely.
Launch promotions
Everybody loves a freebie and launching promotions is effective for re-engaging old customers as much as it is for new ones. The trick is to create tailor made promotions, rather than adopting a general catch-all approach. Therefore start considering how promotions can attract old customers back.
Look through your records and social mage pages and discover why customers may have left. Consider the main factor responsible and launch a promotion that improves the issue or removes it altogether. You’ll find that a healthy number of old customers will subsequently begin to return.
Show up at industry events
Of course, while the coronavirus pandemic continues industry events will have to be online only. The principle holds however and one of the best ways for you to re-engage with old customers is to attend industry events. Conferences, trade fairs, networking events etc, there are a variety of options to choose from.
Make sure that any industry event you plan on attending is well-advertised via both your social media and email system. Don’t be afraid to be bold and colourful at your events, the more you stand out the better. Also, don’t discount the potential of online only events as coronavirus is likely to make them a permanent fixture.
Create a community forum
Creating a community forum beyond your social media pages is an excellent way to re-engage old customers as it gives their enthusiasm licence to soar. If social media is for the masses then a community forum is for the elite. This is where your die hard customers will congregate, offering great motivation for others to return.
You can share new ideas about your product and involve your customers in the process, making them feel engaged and valued. Announce discounts and community forum exclusives to get people interested. In time community forums make engagement a doddle.
Seek the truth and answer questions
Always ask questions of your customers both old and new. This might appear to be somewhat simplistic but the importance of asking questions cannot be overstated. Whenever you create a new email or social media campaign, phone script, meeting plan etc, plan it around asking questions.
If a customer isn’t happy about the product, ask them why, don’t ask questions when you know the answers. Also, don’t ask questions designed to stroke your personal ego, you need to be asking tough questions to make this work. Ask real questions, for real answers, and your customers be re-engaged.
Ensure you follow up on customer feedback
The questions you ask your customer and the answer they provide to you are only as valuable as the lessons you learn. There’s no point seeking information and doing nothing with it after all. Therefore you need to make sure you follow up on your customer feedback.
Of course this only applies to legitimate feedback and unfortunately you’ll have to wade through spurious responses. The positive lessons you can glean from your feedback however are invaluable at helping you to re-engage with old customers. When you implement the new ideas make sure you reach out to the respondent to let them know you took their advice.
Use a loyalty program
Using a loyalty program is one of the best ways to re-engage old customers as it makes the relationship between you rather simple. The longer they continue to be a loyal customer the more likely they are to receive gifts, discounts, and other incentives for their loyalty. It’s a tried and tested method that works time and time again.
The great thing about using a loyalty program system is that it can be applied at both the micro and macro levels. You simply need to identify the best features of your company and scale them upwards proportionately to a customer’s loyalty. Reward your patrons, this is how you re-engage old customers.
Make things consistent
Finally, if you want to learn how to re-engage old customers then you need to ensure consistency across your company. Make sure that your values, aims and ambitions are understood by both your team and your customers. Brands that aren’t committed to their message will fail, those that are will succeed.
Ensuring consistency across all your platforms will help you penetrate new markets, increase sales, and boost your brand’s prestige. Consistency will also ensure your internal processes are more efficient. Therefore make sure everyone on your team knows their role and focuses on it too.
Finding the right tool to ensure maximum engagement
If you want to adopt all of the above methods to re-engage old customers you’ll need a tool to help you, so make sure you use Revenue Engage. This cutting edge customer engagement tool maximises your ability to nurture clients and partners, and allows you to mastermind campaigns designed to target customers of all stripes. Revenue Engage also streamlines your sales sequences and offers superlative control over the whole sales process.
The tool integrates AI automation while ensuring that the process remains guided by yourself, meaning the AI system works for you not the other way around. It is fully integratable with Revenue Grid’s other products too, making it outstanding value for any sales company, no matter its size. With Revenue Engage every decision you make to re-engage old customers will be driven by intelligence and experience, so make sure you invest in this outstanding tool.